3 Powerful Benefits of Vulnerability Management Every Organization Should Know

In the modern digital economy, all organizations rely on software and hardware to
resolve business challenges, boost productivity and efficiency, and improve
customer experiences. However, these systems are not perfect since they are
susceptible to vulnerabilities that increase the risk of cyberattacks and data
breaches. 

The bad news is that the number of vulnerabilities is constantly increasing. As of
May 2022, the NIST’s National Vulnerability Database (NVD) lists over 187,000
vulnerabilities. But the good news is that organizations can minimize the impact of
these vulnerabilities with robust and regular vulnerability management. 

What is Vulnerability Management? 

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines a vulnerability as a
“weakness of an asset or group of assets that can be exploited by one or more
threats.” These assets on the enterprise network can be software applications or
hardware devices like endpoints. 

Vulnerability management is an ongoing process of identifying, assessing,
remediating, managing and reporting security vulnerabilities in enterprise networks,
systems, and applications. A robust and effective vulnerability management program
leverages automated tools to detect vulnerabilities, processes to patch and
remediate them, and threat intelligence to prioritize vulnerabilities and address them
based on their risk profile. 

Unlike vulnerability assessment, vulnerability management is not simply a one-time
evaluation of vulnerabilities. Instead, it is an effort to discover, evaluate, and respond
to vulnerabilities continually. Thus, it has a much broader scope than vulnerability
assessment. 

A robust vulnerability management program should be a part of your organization’s
cybersecurity strategy. The following few sections explain why. 

1. Vulnerabilities Open the Door to Attackers. Vulnerability Management Helps Close (Most of) Them 

Most vulnerabilities in NVD’s database are listed as critical- or high-severity.
Moreover, another 2022 report found that almost 1/10 vulnerabilities in web
applications are high- or critical-risk. These facts show that attackers have many
touchpoints to exploit. These vulnerabilities allow them to leverage many threat
pathways like malware, SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), and
account takeovers to attack vulnerable organizations and gain unauthorized access
to their critical systems and data.

Since exploiting vulnerabilities is a “tried and tested” attack method, organizations
must identify their security weak spots and eliminate them before they can be
spotted or exploited by attackers. Here’s where vulnerability management comes in. 

With a robust vulnerability management system, you can pinpoint the vulnerabilities
in your environment. You can also evaluate the level of risk presented by each
vulnerability and then implement strong controls to protect the company against
exploits and damage. 

2. Vulnerability Management Strengthens Enterprise Cybersecurity Posture  

Vulnerability management is one of the essential pillars of enterprise cybersecurity.
When combined with security monitoring, remediation planning, risk mitigation,
incident response, and threat intelligence, it can empower your organization to
pursue a holistic and practical cybersecurity approach. 

This approach is both risk-based and contextual. This is important because the risk
posed by a particular vulnerability is situational and can vary significantly across
organizations. To assess and manage a vulnerability, you need to determine the
likelihood of its “weaponization” and understand what the impact might be if this
happens. It can be time-consuming and cumbersome to patch each vulnerability, so
such analyses are crucial. 

By understanding each vulnerability’s context and risk profile, you can identify the
vulnerabilities that present the most significant risk to the organization. Then you can
choose the best course of action to minimize the risk and reduce the potential of a
damaging attack or breach. With the help of automation, risk assessment
frameworks, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, risk-based vulnerability
management programs can bolster your organization’s cybersecurity posture. 

3. Vulnerability Management Can Support Your Regulatory
Compliance Program 

Regulatory compliance is another compelling reason to implement a vulnerability
management strategy. Many organizations are required to comply with specific laws
and regulations. For example, healthcare organizations must comply with the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while companies that collect
and process credit card information fall under the regulatory purview of the Payment
Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Similarly, organizations with a
presence in the EU must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR). 

HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR are just a few standards in an ever-expanding
regulatory landscape. In this landscape, achieving and maintaining compliance
requires risk assessment and mitigation. For this, vulnerability management is
crucial. Proper vulnerability management can make the organization less susceptible
to security incidents and cyberattacks that could render it non-compliant. It can help
the business avoid noncompliance and any associated penalties. 

Under many regulations, compliance means prioritizing and fixing vulnerabilities
based on their risk. With good vulnerability management platforms, it’s easier to
achieve these objectives. To achieve compliance, you can quickly identify the
highest-priority action items that you must complete. You can also reveal
improvement areas to help you maintain continuous compliance, regardless of which
compliance framework applies to your organization. 

Key Steps in Vulnerability Management 

We have seen how vulnerability management can protect your organization from
known exploitations and threat actors. It can also help you stay compliant with the
regulatory requirements applicable to your industry and company. But to garner
these benefits, your vulnerability management program should be proactive and
ongoing. The process should also include the following steps: 

1. Discover vulnerabilities 

In this first step, you will use vulnerability scanning tools to explore the enterprise
network, discover the assets running on it, and find their vulnerabilities. The tools will
use a vulnerability database like NVD containing a list of publicly known
vulnerabilities to locate the known vulnerabilities that threat actors
could exploit.

Endpoint agents can also continuously gather vulnerability data from enterprise
systems, apart from vulnerability scanners. Both scanners and agents can be used
to create reports about the performance and progress of your vulnerability
management program. 

2. Evaluate vulnerabilities 

After identifying vulnerabilities, you need to evaluate them. As mentioned earlier, the
same vulnerability can affect different organizations differently. Moreover, not all
vulnerabilities are severe enough to warrant an all-hands-on-the-deck
management/remediation approach. 
One of the best ways to evaluate vulnerabilities is with the help of the Common
Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). The NVD utilizes the CVSS to add a numerical
severity rating to each vulnerability. You can then use this rating to identify whether a
vulnerability is low-, medium-, high-, or critical-severity. Such categorization will help
you prioritize the management and remediation of the most critical vulnerabilities in
your IT ecosystem. 

Apart from CVSS, you can also prioritize vulnerabilities based on factors like: 

• Vulnerability age (how long it has existed on your network) 
• Whether it’s a true or false positive 
• Difficulty or ease of exploitation 
• Potential impact if exploited 
• Availability of published exploit code 
• Existing security controls that may reduce exploitation probability or
  impact 

3. Treat vulnerabilities 

If an identified vulnerability is a risk to the organization, you must treat it early.
Depending on its risk type and level, you can choose one of three treatment options: 

• Remediate: Completely patch the vulnerability to prevent its
  exploitation. 
• Mitigate: If a patch is not available, take action to lessen exploitation’s
  likelihood and impact. 
• Accept: Take no action if the vulnerability is deemed low-risk and if the
  cost of patching exceeds the cost of potential exploitation. 

If you choose to remediate a vulnerability, it’s best to run another vulnerability scan
to confirm that the vulnerability has been eliminated and its associated threat has
been lowered. 

4. Report on vulnerabilities 

A vulnerability management program is incomplete without reporting. Reports and
dashboards from the vulnerability management tool will help you assess the
program’s performance. Over time, they will also allow you to understand the effort
required for each remediation technique, monitor vulnerability trends over time, and
inform your compliance efforts. 

Conclusion 

Effective vulnerability management takes concerted effort, human judgment, and the
right tools and platforms. If done right, it can strengthen your cyber defenses. It can
help the organization avoid cyberattacks and protect its assets from threat actors.